Well, you just never can tell where the Albino Bowler is going to show up next!  :)   This past week, the Albino Bowler joined me on the set of the WBIR morning show to discuss last minute Christmas ideas for all those techies on your list (check out the clip below).  Morning show host Russell Biven, traffic guru Ed Rupp, and the rest of the morning show team were nice enough to play along.  Keep your eyes open… who knows where he’ll show up next!!

– Dan Thompson



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    You may not think of Knoxville, Tennessee as a real bright spot on the jazz scene map, but as it turns out… there is some real talent walking around this city of ours, and they can put on a great show!  For the fifth year in a row, Merrill Lynch has sponsored the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra’s “Swing’n Christmas” at the Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville.  Special guests this year included; Knoxville’s own, Hallerin Hilton Hill (yes, the man can sing as well as talk!), the “Celebration Choir” from the Community Evangelistic Church, and out-of-towner trombonist Ron Westray… it was an impressive line-up to go along with the already outstanding 17 piece big band.  The concert itself features jazzed up Christmas classics like “O Holy Night” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Raindeer”, as well as other tunes you might not initially recognize, but that will have you bob’n your head and moving in your seat. 
    Something about the group that always impresses me is not only the talent that is in the band itself, but the talent they are able to bring in as guests.  This year’s guest, Ron Westray, spent a lot of time touring with the great Winton Marsellus, and was an absolutely ridiculous player… and I’m not really a trombone fan.   Other’s who have stopped by to play with the band are people like Donald Brown, Jimmy Heath, and Stefon Harris.  Pretty neat stuff.  If you haven’t made the concert part of your family’s Christmas tradition yet, you should come out next year… and see what you’ve been missing!  The Albino Bowler says, “I dig it”.

– Dan Thompson

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    Oh my gosh it seems like forever since I have had a chance to sit down and type of my travels.. I have been so busy.. but it’s not always documented.. but I am ALWAYS on the run.. and now with the holidays.. whoosh where has the year gone??

    So a couple of weeks ago I went over to Erin’s again.. heh that new puppy is a little much.. she stares at me so.. I got bored for a while.. you can see by my pictures I just meandered around the house.. I tried to get out.. but sometimes it’s just better to nest.. who said that.. yes even a bachelor likes some down time..
    Then I went to the Madonna show.. G Hollah!! wow was that fun.. a lot of driving.. we went to Atlanta.. three girls and me..there was a lot of LOUD singing all the way there.. I thought I might have to start hitchhiking.. Show was great and then back to KnoxVegas.. It was Thanksgiving.. I was in a coma after that meal.. I said no pictures.. I was a little bloated.. Derby Pie, Turkey, every kind of potoato and family member imaginable was in town.. and of course there’s football all day..
    Speaking of football some of you might have heard that our legendary Coach Philip Fulmer is no longer going to be our coach. So we decided to have a phinal tailgate for Phillip.. it was freaking freezing and raining.. ugh.. the photos are lovely.. although my sweater shrank a little on that day..as did my spirit.. We’ll miss you Coach Fulmer.. tear.

    So now I have been slaking Santa but for some reason I keep chickening out.. although I think I will be ringing bells for the Salvation Army on Thursday..

When the heck is the work Holiday Party??
– Erin Donovan

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    So, I hitched a ride with this funny family to sunny Florida again – this time to Orlando – Disney more specifically.  They have a cute couple of kids…the little girl, she sure is cute – but she talks a lot.  I kept looking for her battery compartment but couldn’t find it.  The littlest dude, he drools a lot, poops a lot and hardly ever sleeps…more on them later.  It took us 2 days to get there and when we did, we hit the ground running.

     Our 1st stop was the Magic Kingdom. Here I am at the front gate and in front of Cinderella’s castle. 
    She sure does know how to live it up right… I think that she is loaded! I think that I will try to meet her while I’m here. Well, as you can see… I did!! I even met one of her girlfriends, Belle. She was a hottie too!!!  Grrr!! Good thing my hair was in place, I know they liked me.   She’ll be able to check me out on my Facebook page.

    Another great stop that we had was breakfast at Chef Mickey’s in the Contemporary Resort. Wow!! What a spread that Mouse had for us to eat. He had everything from fruit to breakfast pizza!! The dad in this family tore this buffet up… he had eggs, biscuits and gravy and who knows what else. I knew that we had a big day planned, so I just took some OJ for the road.  We got to meet Mickey, Donald, Minnie and Pluto here. They were cool, but they didn’t know how to react to me, so no pics with them. I did get my picture made with the Mickey on the table though.
    While I was just chillin’ out there.. the little dude tried to make me breakfast.  Thank goodness he doesn’t have teeth or I could have been a goner. Little Dude did get my shirt wet though. It was dry by the time we got to the park… and hair, still in place! Weather was great while we were there, sunscreen was in demand for the bowler.
    I got to go to Epcot, that could clearly be the world’s largest golf ball. After going golfing with Chris Walker, I would say that he may need this ball for his bag. It would be tough to lose in the woods. ( Sorry Chris!)
    I got to see Crush from Finding Nemo while we were there, but I couldn’t get a picture with him. They said no photos where he was. I did get to see some fish in the aquarium. Those guys were checking me out… I was like their size. Also considered as a possible snack for them. It was a cool place to visit I must say.

    Another morning we had breakfast at this high-flutin’ hotel. That was a nice place.. I think it was the Grand Floridian. We saw Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter, and Tigger. Mary and Alice were some nice eye candy to see in the morning. Tigger was Tigger and this Mad Hatter dude… he was a trip!! Could have been the funniest guy there. He thought that I was a I Phone until he opened me up. Dude, he nearly dropped me in some grits!! 
    We made it back to the Magic Kingdom and I went through the Swiss Family Tree House (1494) and had my picture made with their map since I am a world traveler myself. They needed a globe for me instead of this North America map. This will due for now and for the photo op. The little girl and dad rode Space Mountain while we were there. It was her first and last time I think. I wasn’t tall enough to ride, so I had to wait outside with the mom and little dude. All I remember was hearing from that little girl.. “I want to ride Space Mountain”… until afterwards!! Ha Ha!! Then it was, “I’m never riding that again!!”. The dad loves that ride and I think any rollercoaster from what I could gather. They rode rides all day while we were there.
    We also went to Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios). That was a cool place too. We went into this place where you can learn to draw characters, voice over movies and all kinds of stuff. I got to see where the real people draw the movie characters up for the films. Seems like a cool place to work. We were there after working hours, so all that we saw was their offices. 
   We went strolling around the park an low and behold… I saw my favorite truck. No, it’s not a Ford F350 or a Dodge Ram… it was Tow Mater!!  He doesn’t have a HEMI, but he can still Git ‘R’ Dun!! He asked if I knew of anyone that he could hook up with to fix him up and I gave him Dan Thompson’s, Jeff Lane’s and Chad Quesenberry’s numbers. They’re motor heads as they say in the business. He said that he was.. “ Happier than a tornado in a trailer park” to get those guys’ names. Be on the look out guys, he will be calling. He’s got a few rusty places on his body and a jacked up grill.

– Mark and Jennifer Allen

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    Playing golf was a new event for me. Although I really didn’t play, I guess you could say I was CW’s caddie. We went to Soldiers Creek Golf Club in Elberta, AL. It was designed on a National Wetland Preserve, where all 4 venomous snakes in the U.S. reside. Suddenly, it feels good to be made of hard plastic.

Before I get to the first tee, I have to get my gear ready…
    I keep hearing people yell what sounds like “four”. Why not 1,2,3 or heck 78. Shortly, there after someone corrected me and it is “fore” which rhymes with “sore” which is what I am now that I got picked off by a stray golf ball. I guess someone shanked their drive.
    Here I am sitting waiting for CW to tee off – This is Allen teeing off behind me. He shanked it in the woods, followed by Phil (CW’s brother) who shanked it in the woods. Finally CW teed off…. and shanked it in the woods…

These guys suck.

    At this point, I don’t think anyone was worried about their score. I was asked to hold the ball on the tee. I was told that this is customary for a caddie to do on the 17th hole…or something… The aftermath of this was not good as you can see. There are some places that a tee should not go. I know of one them now.

    Overall the vacation is good. Relaxing….no. But good nonetheless. Many lessons have been learned that I will use in the future. I am going to jump back in my box for the 12 hour trip home. Bowler out!

 

– Chris Walker

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    Well, we made an 8.5 hour drive in about 12 hours, but we finally made it to Navarre Beach, FL. I think this my first family vacation experience, but it has interesting. I am with Chris Walker (CW) (editor’s note, CW is commonly pronounced like “See Dub”) and his family consisting of his wife, mother, 3 year old Dawson, and 8 month Nolan (the juicy one). CW’s brother was there with his wife and 3 kids as well. I am expecting to be herding cats most of this week according to CW, but we’ll see what happens.
    The first couple of days we had bad weather, but luckily I picked up a poncho while in Scotland. The weather got better in the middle of the week and knew it was Red Stripe drinking weather.Stroller Assembly
    Apparently the juicy one got a new stroller before we left. I decided to put this together, so I needed to read the directions. It is not as easy as it looks especially when the wheels are bigger than you. I finally tamed the beast and got everything put in place. I was sore the next day, and spend most of the time in this stroller.

Diapers

    CW wanted to expose me to other pleasures that you can experience while on a family vacation, like changing the baby’s diaper. This is not as easy as it looks, especially when the baby is about 20 times bigger than you. It is about the Human equivalent of changing King Kong’s diaper. After being wrestled with I managed to get the diaper off. I let CW put a new one on.

 Eating Out    I decided to take everyone out to eat. We left the kids with Nana and a baby sitter so we could go out and get loose. While doing so, I was attacked by a gulf shrimp. It was not pictured here for graphic violence reasons, but I took him down and eventually and ate him. We got a ton of food and I paid the Bill. The waiter was enamored by my appearance and got a picture with me. I think he just wanted to get on the web site, but it’s all good. He did a good job and he’s good peeps.

Pool Action with/ the boys

    I tried hanging out at the Pool with Dawson (pictured) and his cousin Trey, but this 3 year and 4 year old crew is tough. Trey kept on calling me “Little Bo Peep”. I haven’t been called that since I got out of prison. I played with them a while and then they got board and left me at the bottom of the pool. Unfortunately when you are only about 4 inches tall every end is the deep end of the pool.

Beach Walk    We went out on the beach for a walk and we happen to run into this thing. I never thought that I would see a silicone breast implant on the beach in its raw form, but this was interesting. However, I touched it and it stung the fire out of me. I had been violated by a breast implant. CW later told me that it was a Jelly Fish. Interesting, woman sure do go through a lot of pain to enhance their appearance.

    Ah yes… tomorrow we golf.

 

– Chris Walker

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    For you long time Albino Bowler fans, you’ll recall that a while back he did some rock climbing out west on El Cap.  Well, it has become somewhat of a Tuesday tradition at the Claris Networks’ office to head up to Look Rock for some good ole East Tennessee climbing (at least for a couple of us anyway)… so we decided to bring him along so he could brush up on his skills a bit.  It got a bit hairy at times (because Zac is apparently not to quick with learning cameras that have more than one button), and yes, the Albino Bowler’s arm broke off… again.  Donations anyone?  We desperately need a spare parts / stunt double.

    At any rate, if you’re familiar with East Tennessee, hopefully by now you’ve heard of the Foothills Parkway (it’s on the way to Deal’s Gap and the “missing lake” mentioned in a previous post). 
It’s a gorgeous drive, and just so happens to have some decent sandstone (by our standards anyway).  Stop off at the Look Rock overlook and have a look around… you’ll see the short trails snaking back through the woods (no pun intended).  Zac Mckinney, Jay Norris, and I tied off and headed up the cliffs… check out the pictures for the rest of the story.

– Dan Thompson

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Out for a Sunday Drive

September 29, 2008    Category: Albino Bowler   No Comments »

    For about a week or so now I’ve been hearing about the fact that the Chilhowee lake has been drawn down so that the dam can be repaired…. and apparently it’s a sight to behold.  Holly and I (and the Albino Bowler of course)decided to venture out today for a little Sunday drive and check it out for ourselves.  Turns out there was definitely a spectacle… oh, and the lake being down was interesting as well.  I was not prepared for the hordes of curious onlookers… evidently we Blount Countians don’t have a lot to do in the time between the summer lake season and the fall colors.  Literally every pull off was flooded with people taking in the sight of a missing lake.
    One particular thing of interest is the old 129 road bed that is now visible.  This stretch of roadway has actually been underwater for about 51 years, and if you’re so inclined, you can scamper down the rocks, brave the undoubtedly deep mud, and take a walk down memory lane.  One word of advice though, you might wait a couple weeks… or a month… it really stinks right now.  The lake is currently scheduled to remain in this state until early 2009, so if you’re not keen on the smell of the elephant cages at the zoo… I’d hold off for a bit until all that lake bottom mud dries out a bit. 

    When you do go though (and I’d say it’s worth the trip if you’re up for a little drive), be on the lookout for old cars that have found their way to the bottom… all by themselves I’m sure.  I’m pretty confident someone handy with a metal detector might find some old relics worth rescuing as well.  Just a thought.

     Chilhowee Lake also happens to be at the end of what the locals call “Deal’s Gap”, “The Tail of the Dragon”, or just “The Dragon”… an 11 mile stretch of road jam-packed full of 318 curves, at the end of which is another place of interest in the area; Fontana Dam.  Holly and I were enjoying our day out and about, so we continued on up the road.  This drive isn’t for the faint of heart though… or more appropriately the faint of… umm err… stomach.  This is the mother of all car sickness roads!  Also, another word of advice, this road is a playground for motorcycles from all over the country, so don’t be surprised if look in your rearview mirror and see a herd of sport bikes wanting to get by… be nice and pull off when its safe for all parties involved.

    One really nice thing about this drive is that there are quite a few mountain lakes up here.  TVA has built a series of power-producing dams all along this route, which make for some nice pictures (of the lakes… not the dams.  Well… them too).  I recommend taking your time and checking out what the many overlooks have to offer.

    If you’ve got a little more time, as we did, drive on out to Fontana Dam and have a look around.  Fontana lake is absolutely beautiful, and the dam visitor center has a lot of dam information that’s pretty, umm… darn interesting (the jokes are free people)… if you’re into dams of course.

– Dan Thompson

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2008 Hot Air Balloon Festival

September 28, 2008    Category: Albino Bowler   No Comments »

      For the 5th year in a row, Pellissippi State Technical Community College put on a Hot Air Balloon Festival.  The festival consists of all manner of musicians, arts and crafts vendors, and of course, hot air balloons.
     Balloon pilots from all over the country come to the college to put on a show for the crowd.  Visitors can enjoy tethered balloon rides, watch the balloon race lift-off, or hang around after dark for the “Glow”, which consists of a choreographed light display set to patriotic and popular hit songs.  Pretty neat stuff.
    My wife Holly and I have some how managed to miss the past 4 years, so this year we loaded up with the Albino Bowler and drove down to check out the event.  Much to our dismay though, the wind was not playing nice and so only three balloonists had their balloons aired up for display.  It did prove to be a nice relaxing time however, and a chance to get an up close view of some hot air balloons.  Oh well… there is always next year, right?

– Dan Thompson

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Islamorada underwater extravaganza!

September 24, 2008    Category: Albino Bowler   No Comments »

 Day 4:  We went snorkeling today but the current was too strong to take the bowler out and get pictures.  When we got back, we took a few funny pictures in the pool at the hotel.  The Bowler decided he wanted to climb up a tree and get a good look at the ocean.  I got a few really good pictures of the sea life while snorkeling.  I am still getting a feel for this mask / camera.  It is very hard to line up shots with it.  Tomorrow is Scuba diving so there will be some great pictures!

Day 5:    We woke up early today and ate breakfast at the hotel.  I was excited because I am finally going to get to scuba dive which is something I’ve never gotten to do before.  I put the bowler in my pocket and we drove to the Holiday Inn where we were meeting our trainers (Jason and Heather).  We met them at the Holiday Inn pool and they showed us how to put together our scuba gear.  We got into the pool and they showed us to use the respirator.  They also taught us to clear our mask from being full of water, how to get your respirator back in your mouth if it were to be knocked out somehow, and how to tell another diver if you are out of air.  We took a lunch break and met the trainers again later in the day to do the real thing.

    We got onto the scuba boat with about 15 other people and the captain took us to the first dive site.  We went down to about 30 feet (the bottom) to see the coral.  Heather and Jason showed us around and took us to some cool stuff underwater.  There was a ton of fish, lobsters, and eels all around us.  The first dive lasted about 45 or 50 mins.  I was running low on air so we had to go back to the surface.  We all loaded up in the boat again and went to the 2nd dive site. 
   We went through the same procedure again and saw some more cool stuff.  I took the bowler out and got some amazing underwater pictures.  After we were done diving, we got back on the boat.  It was by far the most fun thing I’ve ever done on vacation.  On the way back to the dock, the bowler found himself a girlfriend. :)
Day 6:  Today is the last day of vacation and it is sad.  I will be happy to get home though.  I went fishing today and caught a 25 pound Kingfish.  About 10 minutes later, my brother caught a giant barracuda.  We ended up having a ton of fun on vacation this year.  The bowler had lots of good pictures and has now been to the entire Keys.  Everywhere from Islamorada to Key West.

– Zac McKinney

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